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Fighting in Mali: Militants flee into desert, mountains

Angry Malians shout at suspected Islamist extremists held in the back of an army truck in Gao. Four were arrested after being found by a youth militia calling itself the “Gao Patrolmen.” Malian soldiers prevented the mob from lynching the four.

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French-backed Malian troops searched house-to-house in Gao and Timbuktu yesterday, uncovering
arms and explosives abandoned by Islamist fighters, and France said it intends to hand over
longer-term security operations in Mali to an African force.

An 18-day offensive in France’s former western African colony has pushed the militants out of
major towns and into desert and mountain hideouts. The French goal is to head off the risk of Mali
being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe.

French and Malian troops retook the two Saharan trading towns of Timbuktu and Gao over the
weekend virtually unopposed.

Doubts remain about how quickly the African intervention force, known as AFISMA and now expected
to exceed 8,000 troops, could be fully deployed in Mali to hunt down and eradicate retreating
al-Qaida-allied insurgents in the north.

International donors meeting in Addis Ababa pledged $455 million for the Mali crisis. But it was
not clear whether all of it would go directly to AFISMA, which African leaders have estimated will
cost almost $1 billion.

Malian interim President Dioncounda Traore earlier announced that his government will try to
organize “credible” elections for July 31, in response to demands from major Western backers of the
anti-rebel action.

In Gao, Malian soldiers arrested at least five suspected rebels and sympathizers, turned over by
locals, and uncovered caches of weapons and counterfeit money.

Residents reported some looting of Timbuktu shops owned by Arabs and Tuaregs suspected of
helping the Islamists, who had occupied the world-famous seat of Islamic learning — a UNESCO World
Heritage site — since last year.

Malian troops also have been accused by international human-rights groups of carrying out
revenge killings of suspected Islamist rebels and sympathizers in areas that have been retaken.

In the face of such reports, France called yesterday for the swift deployment of international
observers in Mali to ensure that human rights are not abused.

Malian army sources told Reuters that pockets of armed Islamist fighters moving on foot to avoid
French airstrikes were hiding in the savannah and deserts around Gao and Timbuktu and near main
roads leading to them, parts of which were still unsafe.

Mali has been in political limbo since a March 2012 coup triggered the Islamist takeover of the
north.

France has sent about 3,000 troops to Mali at the request of its government but wants to avoid
getting bogged down in a messy counter-insurgency war.

The French also have made clear that although the phase of liberating the biggest northern Mali
towns is over, a more-difficult challenge of flushing Islamist insurgents from isolated desert
lairs looms.

“We will stay as long as necessary. We want to make sure there will be a good hand-over between
France and AFISMA,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The leading donors pledging funds in Addis Ababa were Japan, the European Union and the United
States. But African Union officials could not immediately break down how much was intended for the
African intervention force, how much for Mali’s army and how much for broader humanitarian
purposes.

“The participants are of the view there is a need to continue to work together to mobilize
further resources,” said African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra.

The U.S. and European governments are providing logistical, airlift and intelligence support,
but they are not sending combat troops.

Mali’s neighbor Niger gave permission yesterday for U.S. surveillance drones to fly from
there.